Sleeping Beauty
by DivineJudgment
Summary: One of the oldest mysteries of Forget-Me-Not Valley is the identity of the sleeping beauty at the bottom of the mine. Who is she? More importantly, why won't she wake up?  100 Themes Challenge
1. Princess

**Author's Note: **Attempting something a little different this time- the 100 Theme Challenge. Whether they go in order or not will probably depend on inspiration. However, this is the first of the entire series. All of the stories will be about Princess Keria from Harvest Moon DS. She's always intrigued me and there are so many mysteries surrounding her, it makes writing about her all the more intriguing.

Merry Christmas, too :)

-…-

_[ 51 - Princess ]_

-…-

Was Sleeping Beauty not destined to one day awaken to find her Prince Charming?

So why was it that, now that her prince had come to awaken her, her spirit remained caged within the flesh? Beneath the porcelain skin lay a beating heart thrashing against its bony prison, attempting to provide life to a soulless woman. What craved life was forbidden to ever attain it.

He knew she was alive, or at least, he always told himself so. Even if she had never lived, it would be easier to pretend that he could hear her heart beating against her ribcage. Once more, he presses his ear to her chest, begging whatever Goddess watched overhead to allow him one single, solitary heartbeat. One would suffice, for it would give him hope. And hope was all he could cling to.

But he hears nothing and returns to his place at her bedside, gazing longingly at flesh that was not his to touch. "You're beautiful," he repeats for what feels like the millionth time that night. And he would continue speaking of her beauty until he felt the warmth of a blush break across the delicate skin of her cheek.

He meant every word he spoke to her. When he told her how beautiful she looked today, he gazed upon the hair that spilled like the midnight sky across ghostly flesh and brushed it back from her sorrowful eyes. How beautiful they would look when they reflected a starlit sky. When he told her how sorry he was that he could not help her, he imagined a single crystalline teardrop slipping from her sealed eyelids. How it would mar her perfect face. When he told her she was his, he took her hand in his and made believe she was holding his hand, too. How lovely they would be, lifeless beauty and lively beast. What a perfect paradox.

For now, he was fated only to glimpse what might have been and succumb to the loneliness that lay within both of their hearts. As he leaves for the night, he places one last kiss upon her lips, in the hopes of awakening her from her thousand year slumber. But, like the last thousand days he has tried, her body lays still and her lips cold. She does not kiss back.

He kisses her hand as a gentleman should as he departs from his maiden. He leaves her bedside for the first time that night, before taking one last glance at his imprisoned lover.

"Goodnight, my sleeping beauty."

-...-

**Author's Note:** You want a real surprise? The man in this story isn't Jack- it's Carter ;)


	2. Illusion

**Author's Note: **Hmm, this might actually progress in order! Perhaps this will turn out to be a story told in drabbles, hm? I am certainly in love with the Carter/Keria pairing, if only for the pure angst potential therein. You know how I love my angst :3

-…-

_[ 45 - Illusion ]_

-…-

She stands before him and he swears he's gone crazy.

Ten years, he's awaited this very moment and yet, now that it has arrived, he finds himself paralyzed. Despite the yearnings of his heart, his muscles had locked and his bones could do little more than quiver before the sight before him. His lips go numb and all he can focus on is the mystery presenting itself to him.

His princess, whom he had discovered, cared for and held each and every night since that fateful day an entire decade ago, stood before him in all her regality and elegance. Despite the faith he had clung to so desperately that her spirit would return to this earth, he found himself having difficulty believing that this moment was real. Logic and love battled for dominance within his heart and mind.

Light surrounds her like unearthly mist, coiling itself round the gentle hand she extends to him. Hesitantly, he uses every ounce of willpower remaining in his shellshocked corpse to reach out and, for the first time, feel the true warmth of her silken skin. But as he traces the edge of her palm, the woman before him has vanished.

For an instant, he can only stand and blink, wondering if what he had seen was nothing more than a dream. But then, the soft sound of lady's laughter echoed throughout the chamber and he knew what he saw was no illusion. Desperate for another glimpse of ebony locks against ivory flesh, he sprints down the staircase, pressing deeper into the hollow mines.

As his foot makes contact with the rubble of the mine floor, the mist falls upon him once more, wrapping around his body. From the fog glides his lover. She taunts him, twirling round and round in her royal dress. The edge flies up just enough to let him glimpse ruby slippers before the cloud swallows her whole once more.

He lunges at where she once was, throwing himself upon the hard stone of the ground, before hearing her laughter once more and turning to find her imposing image leaning over him. She bends down, resting her hand against his cheek. He dares to stare into the eyes that for so long he'd craved to gaze into. Those eyes, once believed to hold the stars, held nothing but clouded darkness, revealing an empty expanse of a soulless body. Was this his princess?

She leans in closer to him, cold breath ghosting across his skin as she inches closer. Laughter fills the room once more and he feels frozen lips press against his own. The breath leaves his body and his heart stops beating altogether as both agony and ecstasy overthrow his senses all at once. His shadowed lover had come to return his love, yet the visage before him hardly seemed to be the woman he'd imagined.

As quickly as it comes, it ends, with the mist dissipating and his maiden vanishing before he regains conscious control of his body. His heart begins beating once more and, one by one, his senses return as well.

Like lightning, he rushes to her chamber. Yet, as soon as he enters the bedroom, he finds her sound asleep, still in the same position he'd left her in the night before. He feels his heart sink and resumes his routine.

Silently, he takes his seat upon the edge of her bed. Shakily, he brushes back her bangs. Hoarsely, he tells her she's beautiful. Without looking back, he leaves her room and seals the door behind him.

"It is for the best.

-...-

**Author's Note: **Although I am aware of the scene between Keria and the Witch Princess on how she is truly sealed in the mine, I like to give my own spin to her origins. Any objections?


	3. Breathe Again

**Author's Note: **This one's significantly longer than the other drabbles _and _it's told from someone else's point of view! Lots o' changes, huh? A lot of this was inspired by Once Upon a Time, at least a certain character. Let's see if you understand what I mean ;)

-…-

_[ 10 - Breathe Again ]_

-…-

She had been asleep for so long, she had forgotten what living felt like.

Dreams are quite the intriguing subject, for whatever memory blurs, man can rewrite to his own pleasure. If a dream ended with an unpleasant conclusion, man's mind was trained to erase the negative aspects and present them in a blurred fashion, so that he may not be forced to endure the true cruelty of the human mind. For the inner mechanisms of the human mind are dark and dangerous when tampered with.

But not Keria. She could not pretend to forget the horrors her nightmares presented to her. For her nightmares were not mere imaginings of an overactive imagination, but memories that repeated like broken records as she slept. Each moment, tragedy unfolded before her eyes. Each night, she was reminded how she was unable to change the past, unable to utilize the present and unable to possess a future.

Every dream begins the same way. She is just a little girl, little Princess Keria. She twirls round and round on the ballroom floor, pretending that she, too, would dance with a prince and fall in love. All of her servants would laugh and cheer and admire the sweetness of the child. Her personal maid takes her hand and leads her onward. "Come, little Keria, we have no time to waste." Her ruby eyes burn into her memory as time progresses and Keria finds herself a little girl no more.

In a moment, responsibility and pressure present themselves to teenage Princess Keria. All of the duties of a princess suddenly become reality to a girl who, once upon a time, lived only in fantasy. "I can't do this anymore, Lilith!" She has broken down and her maid holds her, raven locks intertwining with blonde cobwebs. "You don't have to do anything, m'lady. Life is what you make of it."

Keria digs deeper into her caretaker's bosom and shakes her head. "I can't change anything! All I want is to have a chance to breathe again." She sighs. "Father expects me to handle becoming a queen. But I- I just _can't_…" A violent coughing racks her body and her maid clicks her tongue. "Now look what you've done, little one. This coughing just might be the death of you."

Sighing, she finds a wet rag and presses it to the princess' forehead lovingly. "There is always a choice, my ladybird. Never forget that." Keria casts her eyes downward, index fingers circling one another timidly. "Lilith?" Her nanny raises her head and meets her eyes. "Yes, my darling?"

"Would…would it be okay if I didn't want to be queen?" The question takes the older woman by surprise, eyes widening in fascination. "Why, dearie, why ever would you not want to be queen?" Keria's eyes are set in determination and Lilith knows she has already made up her mind. "Well, if that's how you truly feel," she reaches deep within her robe and pulls out a piece of parchment, "I know just the thing to help."

Keria takes the document after a moment's hesitation. The writing is in the Ancient Tongue, and she finds it difficult to follow. "Nana, what is this?" Lilith smirks. "Why, my love, it is the ticket out of this dreadful life of yours." As if by magic, she withdraws a quill from who-knows-where and places it in the princess' palm. "All you have to do is sign the dotted line and this troubled life of yours will change- _forever_."

Her smile is comforting, reassuring. Keria knows she can trust her. Without bothering to decipher the rest of the document, she takes the quill and signs her name onto the paper. Lilith giggles and slips the parchment deep within her cloak. Rising to her feet, she garbs herself in her black cloak that lay on the hat rack and turns to leave. "Good luck, my ladybird. Your new life is just about to begin." With that, she leaves, only the wisps of blonde hair laying in her wake.

Thus, when the nightmare begins.

Keria can only stand, mortified, as the person she thought she could trust more than anyone else in the entire world, causes her ultimate downfall. Lilith strides directly into the King and Queen's chambers and mutters a simple incantation before both King and Queen are burned to ashes in front of Little Keria's eyes.

Soon, the entire castle is ablaze. Servants ran frantically through the building, looking for an escape from the wicked witch that has thrown their peaceful world into utter chaos. Keria begs them for help, for anyone to so much as notice her. She has never been outside the castle- how could she escape from the only person who knows her inside and out? All hope seemed lost.

But no one lifted a finger. And what only stung more is the fact that, deep down, Keria knew that this unendurable suffering was her own fault. She would never forgive herself.

She knew that she would find her. This was inevitable- after all, it was what she had asked for, in one way or another. Lilith approaches her, flames licking the tips of her frayed violet gown. The smirk she bears is so clearly evil, that she wonders how she never before recognized the insanity lying beneath pursed lips.

"Your dear Daddy was quite the lovely victim." The sorceress remarks as she toys with the skull fastened to the familiar ebony cloak. "He begged for mercy- but for you, not even for himself. How pathetic it was! You brought this on yourself." Keria feels the tears burning against her eyes, threatening to burst at any moment. Withholding a sob, she croaks out a single phrase. "You will _pay_."

Of all reactions, the princess certainly did not expect the cackle that loosed itself from the hag's mouth. "Oh, my dear, my time has not yet come." But she saw Keria's eyes- set with determination that she knew meant the girl was serious. She had known those eyes very well. For an instant, her clairvoyance failed her and in that moment, Keria risked everything.

Withdrawing her father's personal blade, the Legendary Sword, she lunged at her nanny and drove the metal clean through the ragged flesh. Bloodcurdling screams ricocheted off every wall of the crumbling castle as Lilith fell to her feet. "You little wretch! How dare you! I'll kill you!"

Lilith raised her hand and spoke in the Ancient Tongue, conjuring a fireball to roast the girl to smithereens. And, for a split second, she swore she was looking at a little girl, twirling around in her ballgown for the whole world to see. That moment, a single tear fell from her hollow ruby eyes.

Embracing the girl, she spoke one final time to her ladybird, before putting her to rest once and for all. "Goodnight, little one. It…is for the best." With that, Lilith placed her dearest child into a deep sleep and placed her where she would never be forced to face the tragedy she had brought upon the world.

Each night, Keria relives her nightmare and finds herself trapped within the endless cycle of hurt, betrayal and death. Would it never end? Suddenly, she felt herself slipping from her dream world and falling into the black abyss.

Falling.

Falling.

Forever falling further and further…

Until she hit rock bottom and found herself in her bed once more, sealed in a dark room, completely and utterly alone. She could breathe again.

-...-


End file.
